The Jews of Demblin during the German Occupation

by Stamphian Fidelis, Demblin-Zayejeje

The author of this work is Polish from the suburb of Demblin, Zayejeje. About
three years ago, the book editor approached the city of Demblin in order to
provide her documentary material about the Jews of Demblin. The little town
nominated Mr. Fidelis to gather the requested material. And indeed, Mr. Fidelis
did not disappoint us. He managed to gather many historic documents about the
history of the little town and her Jews, but his main achievement was numerous
photographs of the Jewish families from Demblin before the Holocaust. He sent
all of those to us including very valuable photographs from the civic life n
those days.

The committee and editors of this book do not agree with several of the
findings and evaluations of Mr. Fidelis in regards to the life of the Jews.
They decided not to change any of this testimony and instead leave it for
future readers and historians t o come up with conclusions and more accurate
data.

The chapter about the Jews of Demblin between the years 1918 until 1939 is the
writing of this author (Mr. Fidelis), which was also translated to Yiddish and
shows in the book on Page 92.

- 1 -

It was the month of August in the year 1939. The days were hot, but
comfortable. The days were beautiful and the nights were clear without any
clouds, the stars and moonlight dominated the darkness of the sky. On such
nights the blood flowed warmer in the arteries, the heart pounded stronger and
a man's soul felt good. On nights like this, a man's heart yearned for love,
warmth and belief. During such nights, the many hearts pounded with innocence
and love towards each other. These bursts of emotions and yearnings for love
from one person to another were full of warm desire and expectations that the
good life was ahead. Many people didn't realize that these were the last
fortunate days. Many others hoped to regain these feelings in good days, but
with so much anxiety and sadness when the salvation days arrived they did not
have any love in their hearts anymore.

These days of calmness were abruptly interrupted by a new order that was echoed
from one edge of the country of Poland to another and the order was
"conscription!" Many hearts full of love, that were burning from
desire were shaken and the souls were afraid, in shock. "What will
tomorrow bring us?" asked the souls. "What will be our fortune!"
However, all of theses questions remained hanging in the air without a solution
or an answer.

The army units that camped at Demblin left their camp and moved West in order
to protect the borders of the country. Many of them included Jewish soldiers
who joined the military to protect the country against the Nazi animal.
Although the entire military moved westward to stop the invader, inside the
country there wasn't any substantial defense.

As a result of the Nazi Luftwaffe airplanes flew in the sky of Poland without
any interruption and took photographs under the skies of Demblin of military
targets and later on targeted them without any interruption. There was not one
Polish airplane that took off to challenge the murderers' airplanes. There was
not one single shot against those airplanes to protect the country and there
was not one gun pointed at them to challenge them. During the embarrassing and
confusing period, the Polish central command was not able to issue even one
order to protect the country. It is no wonder that all the German airplanes
could fly freely under our skies.

The days before the War were days of embarrassment and chaos. This was
especially felt among the Jews. The commerce froze totally and the Jewish
community was captured by fear as a result of the surrounding bad rumors.
Although the consumer goods commerce froze, the commerce of food products was
on the rise, such as sugar salt, flour, oils and so forth. Those that had the
money started to store as much as possible, in the storage room's barrels, in
the ground and any other place that hey could find. The next priority after
food storage was the fixing of the houses. However, the very poor people were
not able to store or fix their houses, their entire property was carried on
their back.

The German Invasion

On September 1, 1939, at 6:00 o'clock in the morning, the first German bombs
fell down on the airport in Demblin. The first explosion alerted people from
their beds. Above the airport could be seen large smoke and dust clouds. The
noise of the airplanes spread fear and anxiety among the people. After the
airplanes had begun, the very first chaos, disaster and death were revealed,
human casualties, soldiers, children and clerks. The explosions also blew up
many buildings, windows and roofs. Demblin experienced its first bombing
attack. From the 1st
until the 7th
of September, the German airplane bombers, bombed our city daily. The targets
were the airport, the fortress, the train station, the bridges. Excluding
Potzovah Street, there were no bombs dropped on the city streets.

Many Jewish families left the city in the first days of the war and escaped to
the forest and adjacent regions. The streets were quiet, the houses stood
disgraced, and on the pavement were piled up pieces of broken glass and mortar
that fell off the houses' walls. Stores' signs that were torn off from their
places now just hung as a testimony to the chaos that inflicted the city.

Only the cats were sneaking among the houses, yelling with sadness and hunger.

On the 8
th
day of the month, the Polish army abandoned the fortress as well as the airport
that was totally quiet now. Only at Stovay was there still soldier guards that
waited for the order to explode the storage of weapons and ammunition. And
indeed on September 11, they set fire at the storage ammunition and the
soldiers retreated eastward.

On the next day, September 12, 1939, the Germans took the city of Demblin and
controlled the city until March 29, 1944.

- 2 -

When the Germans took over Demblin, the Polish and Jewish population that had
escaped earlier from the city, started to return to the city. Everybody was
still afraid. During their first days of occupation, the Germans did not treat
the population with cruelty. However, they inflicted forced labor on the Jews,
such as collecting dead human bodies and dead animals that were piled up on the
street. The Jewish population, without any compensation, were forced to clean
the airport and the streets of the city from the destruction and the debris.

Although the Germans did not forbid the Jews to open their stores, the shelves
in the stores were empty and there was no source for the new merchandise. Any
new merchandise that was found disappeared immediately.

The Germans themselves started to purchase different merchandise in order to
send them back home to Germany. Money started to lose its real value and
merchandise that had been purchased previously at a regular price started to be
excessively expensive. The German occupiers extracted from the economy the
Polish monetary system, and instead injected their own money. The population
did not trust the new system and they refused to trade their merchandise for
the new money. Prices increased dramatically. There was unemployment and the
Polish population started to conduct an underground economy and smuggling.

The population was demoralized. There was no house that didn't have one of its
family members missing. Nobody knew what to expect for their loved ones. On
September 26, refugees and conscripted personnel started to return. They had
never arrived at their units, because the units were dissolved. Personnel in
uniform had not returned yet because they were defending Warsaw and Modlin,
where tough battles were conducted. Then Warsaw and Modlin collapsed with heavy
casualties for the Polish army. General Kolberg put together what was left over
from the retreating units and tried to put together a second line of defense in
the forest of Kotzak. The units of General Kolberg, who were armed very
minimally, eventually surrendered, although they fought heroically. From the
beginning of October 7, General Kolberg's units surrendered entirely to the
Germans. The fortress of Demblin was crowded again with Polish soldiers, but
this time they were Prisoners of War (POW's). The population was forced to
accept them among themselves though they were unable to provide them with real
help. The Nazi guards were so sure about themselves that they scattered the
population who were standing and looking at the line of POW's. They yelled and
beat them, not allowing any individuals to get close to the lines of the POWs,
who were marched in the city. Every once and a while, one of the POWs managed
to escape from the line and enter one of the houses where the citizens provided
him with food and he immediately changed his clothing. The Jews also were
hiding soldiers and providing them with civilian clothing.

People got closer to each other and unified under the same crisis. The division
between Jews and Poles disappeared. All were brothers to the same fortune. All
were Poles. However, during many long months of occupation, terror and
propaganda, the anti-Semitic poison started to bubble among the wide layers of
the population. The smart and conscious among the Poles did not trust and
follow the German propaganda. The Jews were their friend as ever.

From October 15, many soldiers started to return, all dressed in a strange
uniform. These were the lucky ones who managed to escape from the Nazis, the
occupation and the POWs. The population started to help them but the most
significant assistance came from the Jewish population. With no limit, they
provided material help, such as food and clothing. If someone would get help
without being able to pay back he would hear the following condolence "At
the end of the War, we will settle the bill." The professional military
personnel first arrived to the Jewish houses, the first support that they got
was information about their family and what was happening in the city in
general. The Jewish families were the first to support and help because they
knew very well what it felt like to be in such a crisis. Crises was always
their company in this part of their lives. There was no time now for mourning
and being depressed. It was a time for action and courage.

This was the testimony of Pair Yandzjevsky, officer from the 15
th
battalion: "I returned to Demblin in mid-November. On the street I met
the community secretary, Blazjesky, and I learned that the Germans were
interrogating everyone about the officers from the Polish army who were hiding
in Demblin. In order to get more accurate information, I ended up going to
Yaacov Rosenberg's house and there I stayed overnight. Then, the next few days
I spent at Pinchas Schteinbuch Kamiyan and at Lena Schtorn's. They were not
working as merchants anymore and most of the conversations were about the War.
"What will the future day bring and what kind of fate is expected to come
upon us?"" None of the individuals had any answers to these questions.

At this time the Germans hadn't started with the murderous killing but commerce
was forbidden. The Jewish population, in order to manage, started to sell, in
hiding, industrial products, in order to provide food products for their family
members. "The War will not last for too many days", said many. Many
who listened to the broadcasts from abroad, claimed the English and the British
had not entered the War yet and there was hope the Germans would not win the
War. Many tried to console themselves and tried to keep up a higher morale.

- 3 -

In mid-1939, the Germans ordered the submission of all radios and cameras. The
Volksdeutscher, those Germans with the swastika bands, passed from house to
house and conducted searches for the forbidden equipment, but on many occasions
they took whatever they felt like taking with them. This was, as a matter of
fact, the first forced action by the Germans on the Polish and Jewish
populations.

On December, 1939, came the shocking news about the mass murder of 130 Polish
people in Vahver, adjacent to Warsaw, for the revenge of the killing of a
drunken German in one of the bars. Men were captured in their houses, in the
train station and in the street and were assembled in a central site, where the
mass murder was executed. These mass murders shocked the entire nation. Nobody
was familiar with the horror of the Nazis yet, and they couldn't grasp this
tragedy. How come for one German, 100 innocent people must be killed without
even a trial? The community was shocked and terrified, while the Germans
prepared for the future killing that didn't have any end.

The Jews were still living mostly in their houses. Only their big houses were
confiscated by the Germans. The manufacturing and commerce started to die
slowly, slowly, and many stores started to be closed everyday. From 1940, the
Jews were not able to get licenses to conduct their stores and services for the
general population at large, the only stores and services that they could
conduct were for Jews only. At that time, the ghetto wasn't established yet and
many Jews were able to get out of the city. And so, indeed, many of the Jewish
merchants and manufacturers took advantage of this possibility, and they
reached out of the adjacent cities and villages and brought food to their
family members for fixing shoes or sewing garments. Although orders to limit
and humiliate the Jews were not conducted at the time, the Jews felt the abuse
of the German gendarme very well anytime they were meeting with them. The Jews
would be beaten by the Germans, and the little food that they could carry on
their back would be confiscated and destroyed in front of them. The Jews were
very afraid from these encounters and tried to avoid them as much as possible.
The Polish population would support and warn the Jews about such encounters
with the Germans, and when the Germans would pass by they would signal the Jews
that the road was available.

In May, 1940, the German occupation issued an order that all Jews should
identify themselves by carrying on their arms a band with the logo of the Mogen
David [Star of David]. This identification dramatically limited their movement
outside their immediate community. But they took chances and removed the
identification band and would get on the road to provide for their family
members. These were mostly Jews that looked like the rest of the population,
and nobody could tell that they were Jews by looking at their face. Also in the
same year, the Judenrat was established by the Germans, and the Germans
received the books of the population registration of all the Jews, and the
registration of all that died. These books were destroyed at the time of the
last expulsions. As a result, nobody can tell the number of the Jewish
population in those days.

In the beginning of 1940, when the Jews were still able to move about freely,
Rabbi Emanuel Rabinovitch left the city with his family to an unknown
destination and was replaced by his vice Rabbi.

- 4 -

[See PHOTO-C49 at the end of Section C]

In the first half of November 1940, the Germans concentrated the Jewish
population in several streets of the city: Bankova, Okulna, Sanatorska,
Wieyahtretznah, Neahtzalah and Pshachodneyah Streets. The houses of the
expelled Jews were given to the Polish who were transferred from other streets.
So by concentrating all the Jews in these streets, the Germans established a
ghetto in the city. The ghetto wasn't fenced, a fact that was very important
for the Jews, so that they could interact with the general population, although
that too was in hiding. The Polish population would often enter the ghetto, but
later an order was issued that it was forbidden to enter the ghetto and
everybody that would be captured would be killed. After the first death penalty
was issued, these inhabitants refrained from publicly entering the ghetto,
though a few managed to get in, in hiding. The Jews were forbidden to get out
from the ghetto unless they had a special permit, or if it was a group on the
way to work. A Jew that was captured outside the ghetto without a permit was
shot to death on the spot without a trial. And so, thousands of Jews were
cramped into the area of the ghetto without any substantial means of survival.
They did not get any food supply, water, medicine and heating, and that was not
enough. The Germans kept issuing one limiting order after the other that
limited the freedom and weakened the basic physical existence.

It was forbidden for the Jews to be in the streets populated by the Polish. It
was forbidden to buy medicine in the pharmacies, it was forbidden to be in the
market on the days of sales and purchasing food products from the farmers. But
since the ghetto was not fenced at the time and the streets Okulna and
Sanatorska were bordered with the general market, many Jews who dared, entered
the market and while no Germans were around managed to buy chickens potatoes
and other food products. Also, farmers on the way to the market who had to pass
through the streets Okulna or Pshachodneyah would leave some of the food
products with the Jews as long as the Germans were not aware of them and the
bill would be dealt with at a later time and another place. Before the
beginning of the War there were good relationships between the Polish farmers
and the Jews. There was no antagonism to the Jews and they even helped the Jews
as much as they could.

The Germans constricted Polish policemen who were serving there before the War.
The police would guard the ghetto so that Poles would not enter it and Jews
would not conduct commerce in it. Many policemen would warn the Jews whenever
they saw the Germans approaching. So thanks to the help of the population, the
Jews were not hungry. This of course related mostly to the more affluent
inhabitants of the Jews in the ghetto. On Okulna Street there was a bakery that
provided bread for the ghetto inhabitants only. Although the arrangement was to
buy bread with coupons, the bakery provided bread even though many of the
people didn't have coupons. Bread with coupons were given only for those who
were enlisted as workers or laborers. These portions were very small and it was
not enough to provide for the body and sometimes it didn't stop death from
hunger.

Every month the Germans issued new orders. They nominated a new Ukrainian
Commissioner on the Committee. Demblin was announced as a county that was
commissioned by the Ukrainian commissioner and was helped by
"gendarme" Police for criminal cases, or the "black police"
and also "Arbeitsdienst". The Gendarmes were at the Demblin station
and at the "Banshutz". The gendarme unit was composed of the S. S. man
Yohan Peterson, Abal, Schultz, and the "Volksdeutscher" Edward Brokof
and a Pole from the village Stroytzyah Kerash, Edek the infamous. The criminal
police were composed of two individuals, the commandant Garbartzek and another
policeman.

In addition there was "the blue police" and also other Gendarmes, but
I will not mention these because they were not abusive to the population.

As soon as the oppressive organizations were organized, the Germans started
issuing their criminal orders. The Nazi head of the "Arbaytz" ordered
the Judenrat to prepare a list of the Jews who were able to work. From the list
he chose several people to work at the airports, at the fortress and the
maintenance of the roads and foundries. These workers received food coupons
that were given in a very minimal quantity that obviously was not enough to
satisfy their hunger, however the work outside the ghetto provided the Jews
with contact with the Polish workers who provided the Jews different food
products. Jews that were not in the labor force, stuck inside the ghetto, and
did not receive food coupons.

The Jewish stores along Warshavsky street were totally diminished. A few of the
stores were given to the "Volksdeutsch", to Portan, Kovalsky and the
others. Other stores were totally looted by the Nazis and the merchandise was
transported to stores in Germany. The Jews were left only with a few
meaningless small stores in Germany. The Jewish banks were essentially savings
for community services and were all closed in the midst of 1939. The Judenrat
was situated in one of the bank structures on Bankova street. Among its members
were Kanaryfogel, Korst, Teichman, Ekheizer, Pinchas Schteinbuch, Shulman,
Price, Weinberg and Yaacov Rosenberg. The Judenrat job was to represent the
Jews before the German occupation and also to keep security and order in the
ghetto. As a matter of fact, the Judenrat was a very important channel to
transfer orders against the Jews and execute those orders as well. The Judenrat
established a Jewish police that was in charge of the order in the ghetto as
well as keep the Polish from penetrating into the ghetto. In addition, the
Jewish police were in charge of concentrating and transferring the Jewish
laborers to their jobs. From those concentration points, the Jews were selected
for numerous forced labor by Polish workers, Volksdeutscher, the Wehrmacht
soldiers and the "Sonderdienst". The Sonderdienst were also called
the Black because of their black hats. These were mostly Volksdeutscher and
nationalist Ukrainians, hoodlums and criminals from the worst cases. There was
no limit to their torturing of the Jews who fell into their hands. At any
occasion they would inflict vicious beating with a leather whip on the Jewish
body. Jews who were marched to their work were forced to dance and sing. Some
of the humiliating words of the forced singing were "during the days of
Marshall Ridge Shmigly we were lazy, but Hitler our leader, is teaching us how
to work". The Blacks closely watched the singers and if one of the Jews
did not sing, he would immediately and viciously be whipped with a leather whip
or hit by a rifle and there were several cases where he would be murdered or be
killed on the spot. No one would charge them for killing a Jew. There would be
no inquiry why a Jew would be killed, and nobody had to justify themselves.
They treated the Jews worse than an animal. There was one case where one of the
Gendarmes, who used to kill Jews daily, saw a man whipping his horse very
badly. He immediately grabbed the whip from the man and asked him why he
treated a defenseless animal like that so cruelly. That was the basic mercy of
the German gendarme.

As a result of the high density and the lack of water supply, heating and
electricity, diseases, mostly dysentery, started to spread among the Jewish
population. In order to prevent spreading the diseases beyond the ghetto
periphery, the Germans let the Juderat open a hospital at the Zjelinsky house
by the railroad in front of the park. This was on June, 1944. The hospital
doctor was Kava, and his helper was the folk doctor Vanapol.

The main access to the hospital was through Warshavsky street, but in order to
avoid meeting the German gendarmes and the German clerks, the doctors and the
nurses approached through different streets, Neyzvietska and Koshtseylnah then
to Warshavsky Street and then to the hospital. The Jews were forbidden to walk
on the sidewalks, they could only walk on the street if they encountered a
German on the way they had to take off their hat and hold it in their hands. In
order to avoid that, many Jews chose to walk on an alternate, longer way in
order to be able to walk on the pavement and not to take their hat off for the
Nazis. The Gestapo, the Commissars and the officers and the soldiers of the
Wermacht didn't care much about the Jews who were passing by them, however they
kept the Gendarmes to execute those humiliating rules and orders.

- 5 -

After France was conquered, Demblin was flooded with German soldiers. The
fortress was occupied by the infantry, and the airport was occupied by the
pilots. From morning until evening the sounds of orders, airplane engines and
crowds singing "Heil, Heil" were echoed all over the place. There was
a significant increase of military guarding the bridges, the roads and more
pressure on the local population. Carriages and pedestrians were monitored and
checked at every corner and different food products such as meat, flour,
butter, eggs, etc. were confiscated. Many of the food products were not even
reaching the city. The Germans confiscated much of it to their own discretion.
It was also impossible to bring food products from the little town Ryki and at
the train station the "Gunshutzman", the Gendarmes who guarded the
train station, broke into the cars and conducted searches and confiscated many
of the products that the passengers carried with them. From then on, Demblin
was called by many passengers "Goloshiem" which means bolded head,
because the Germans took everything away from the passengers, as if they shaved
their head. This situation continued until the liberation of Poland. But food
products were still available in Demblin. Can you imagine the difficult
situation of the Jewish population that was stuck in the ghetto without coming
in and out? The rich Jews didn't suffer any hunger, but the poor ones only had
their bear hands ready to work at their disposal, looked pale and very thin as
a result of lack of adequate food and medication. Event the Judenrat that tried
to spread the food products equally among the Jewish population wasn't really
helpful and functional. The food distribution became more and more difficult
from day to day because the dramatic increase of new Jewish refugees who were
expelled from Podzen county couldn't take with them any property or money
besides just bedding. So that the little that was available had to be equally
spread among the local poor Jews and the incoming refugees.

Among the refugees that arrived in Demblin was Dr. Kava and his wife who joined
the very modest Jewish doctors. The Judenrat provided him with the necessary
medical equipment and material an in return Dr. Kava took care of the Jewish
and non-Jewish patients of the hospital. Many Poles enjoyed Dr. Kava's
treatment, among them were my own family members. He was living on 13
Pshachodneyah street at the Rayefsky's house.

As stated before, the Jews' nutrition situation worsened from day to day. Many
Polish families whose conditions were better because they could move from one
place to another place freely supported their Jewish friends, but even this was
very difficult because the War separated friends. Many were under surveillance
and many were in hiding. In spite of all of that there were many Poles who
provided help and that was a testimony for the close relationship between Poles
and Jews.

Demblin's indigenous population were people who knew each other throughout
their childhood years and they never forgot their neighbors while in trouble
and handed them their help. But at the same time during a War and oppression
occupation there was very cruel, unrelenting anti-Semitic propaganda, and a new
human character emerged. This new character had no mercy in conscious to his
fellows, just like a wolf. These kinds of people were merchants and involved in
smuggling. For large sums of money, especially gold and expensive jewelry, they
provided food. But these human relationships were not really surprising because
whenever the Germans caught someone who was smuggling one kilogram of flour,
butter or pig fat, he would execute that person immediately. The Germans also
executed every Christian who came in contact with the Jews. Therefore again the
price was very high, because life was very expensive. At the same time there
were few in the society who tried to avoid the merchants and the smugglers to
rip off the Jews. Those merchants and smugglers were especially opposed by the
underground who were involved in the struggle against spies for the Germans,
deserters. These were proud people who declared loudly that they were proud
Poles and they had to unite in order to fight against the occupier. Many ended
up in prison and were executed. So the Nazi terror was established in Demblin.

In October 1940, a Polish officer, Prantzeshak Yandzjevsky, was nominated to be
in charge of the workers' food store. This workers' food store was located in
the yard at Warshavsky Street in front of Bankova street. Also at the same
place, in the basement of what used to be a bank, was additional storage of
sugar and sugar products. There was a need for a new porter to work at the
storage house. The chief commissioner, Lomod Vayndjeyvsky coordinated with the
Judenrat and "Arbaytz" to send them the Jewish porter named Yosky
(don't know his last name). Upon working at the storage house at Yandzjevsky's,
Yosky started to transfer information from friends. Yandzjevsky organized at
the storage house specific locations where food for the ghetto was assembled
and organized.

He purchased the food product from the local farmers and from Fodjeyvah ranch.
These products included mostly potatoes, cabbage, other kinds of vegetables and
sometimes even eggs. All these products were sold to the ghetto at the same
purchase price from the farmers without any additional cost. Yitzhak Goldberg,
the nephew of Schteinbuch, was always present during the purchasing moments. In
the event that the amount of product was a little excessive, Yosky would load
them in a bag and transfer the extra products on his back into the ghetto so
that it seemed he was carrying that bag to the storage house at Bankova street.
However, in most cases, small amounts of food products were carried into the
ghetto by Yithak Goldberg himself. With the permission of the head commissioner
of the storage house, Yandzjevsky was transferring to the ghetto, salt, coffee,
beans and other products that were not included in the food coupons for the
Jews but they were still very necessary.

Yosky the porter took on himself to carry the food products to the ghetto
people and then Goldberg was the connection person between the Yandzjevsky and
the Judenrat. The Jewish guards that were located at Bankova Street helped
Goldberg upon exiting an entering the ghetto so that he did not encounter the
Germans. This support of Yandzjevsky for the ghetto inhabitants continued until
October 14, 1942 when the ghetto was demolished.

- 6 -

It was June 22, 1941 when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. The Luftwaffe
airplanes repeatedly took off from the Demblin airport towards the territory of
the Soviet Union. From a distance we could hear many explosions and after two
days it was quiet. We didn't hear the airplane engines anymore and the guns
were silent. But at the same time, day and night, lines of German infantry,
tanks and armored personnel passed Eastward through the city. Twice a week the
Germans broadcast their victories through a large speaker that was positioned
in the central plaza of the market. People listened to the news with sorrow and
expressions of pain on their faces. This was not the news they expected, not
the German victory, all they wanted to listen to was the German defeat. But it
turned out that these wishes were eventually realized.

On approximately July 10, the first Soviet POW's arrived in Demblin where they
were imprisoned in the city fortress. Through many days, the Russian POW's
flowed into the city and the city fortress was already full. Then they were
imprisoned at the former 28
th
battalion shacks that were located at Bilova Street. The Nazis did not provide
them with food and care and they started to die by the thousands. There were
reports about cannibalism at the super stalag where POW's ate their dead
companions' bodies. The bad sanitary situation and the hunger caused the spread
of epidemics of typhus of different kinds. However, the epidemic was not
confined to only POW camps, it also spread throughout the entire area. Of
course the ghetto condition was very good for the spread of typhus, many died
and there was no house that didn't have a sick person in it. When the typhus
epidemic started to penetrate through the Polish population, only then did the
Germans take action in order to protect themselves from the spread of the
typhus epidemic. The open hospital for the Polish at the schoolyard number 1 at
Sochatzki street and for the Jews at the Pumienovsky house at Starovka Street.

The Polish hospital had very few medications, but on the other hand the Jewish
hospital had none, because the Jewish hospital did not receive any medication,
neither could they purchase medication by high payments because nobody would
dare send medications to the Jews. The little that was in stock depleted
quickly and new medication was impossible to get. Since the hospital couldn't
be operated without medication, Dr. Kava addressed me and asked me to provide
him some medications for his hospital. I was the sanitation inspector and knew
many Jews, Yaacov Rosenberg, Pinchas Schteinbuch, Yitzhak Goldberg,
Schweignberg, Kaminsky and his daughter Paula and I also had a license to get
into the ghetto for my job. I addressed Dr. Kava's request for medication and I
started the process of providing those from the local pharmacies. I contacted
the pharmacy in Warsaw at Polvaska Street, I informed the owner at the pharmacy
the kind of medication that I needed and the purpose. It was possible to get
any kind of medication at that pharmacy and if they didn't have it the
pharmacist would order and eventually receive it. I myself could not leave
Demblin so often, so my wife took part in the purchase of the medication. This
medications were mostly Kardiosole, Korameid, Koramein, Strychnine and so on.
Upon receiving the medication order from the doctor or from Goldberg, I would
take a trip to Warsaw, purchase those and order new ones. However, the
production of medication had priority first of all for the German army so as a
result it was more and more difficult to get those. Only the pharmacies named
"Nur Pir Deutsche" were well equipped which of course served the
Germans only. At one of those pharmacies, located at Krakovskeyah Pashdmiesche,
my wife was able to purchase some medications after she was equipped with a
recommendation letter from one of the pharmacists who was working there. In May
1942 the typhus epidemic was eased significantly and there was no need for
medications anymore. As a result, the contacts with the pharmacies stopped.

In the winter of 1941 / 1942 the Germans ordered the population to provide a
quota of winter jackets and gloves. This order was addressed mostly to the
Jewish population and the Germans executed these orders very severely. They
searched the Jewish houses and confiscated coats, furs and other products. The
Jews and the Poles tried as much as they could to hide the furs from the
Germans. It seemed that the order to hand over the winter jackets and the furs
to the Germans did not reach everybody. On one of the difficult winter nights,
two ranch owners, well dressed with fur coats arrived in Demblin. On the way to
the city they encountered two German gendarmes who ordered them to immediately
take off their fur coats and in order for them not to get cold the Germans beat
them cruelly so that they would keep warm. The two jumped on their cart and
escaped to their houses. From that day on nobody dared appear dressed with a
fur coat in Demblin.

The encampment of the Jews in the Ghetto was a very convenient arrangement for
the Germans. The Ghetto was easily accessible to every gendarme, Gestapo person
or Nazi commissar, for conducting searches or sending its inhabitants to forced
labor, especially to work for the Germans and as a reward they would be beaten.
The ghetto inhabitants were to the Nazis like a milk cow, to be milked to its
end and at the end to be murdered. The higher seniority a Nazi had, the more
strict and cruel his demands were for the Jews. As a reward to "ease
up" the condition on life for the Jews, the Nazis demanded from the
Judenrat, gold, and without much choice the Judenrat made all efforts to
provide them with those demands. If the Nazis while robbing a Jew caught a Jew
with an expression of discomfort on his face, they would inflict a heavy
beating with a whip and their rifle on him. So there were many cases where Jews
were murdered while their house was robbed. While the Jews were struggling
between life and death the War was still on. There were battles in the prairies
of Russia and in the deserts of Africa. The British radio station tried to
encourage the Poles to hang on, the War is towards its end and the defeat of
Hitler is certain. But at the sane time at the plaza and streets of the city,
the Germans hung banners with big V signs that declared their big victories of
the German army in Russia and Africa and the speakers that were situated at the
central plaza by the market did not stop screaming and reporting about the new
conquests in the USSR and Africa. This activity lowered the moral of the
population and trust in the allied victories.

Demblin became a place of mass murder. An endless cemetery of hopeless people.
At the city fortress thousands and thousands of Soviet POW's died of hunger. At
the train station and the cars, searches were conducted and if someone was
found to possess a little bit of fat, flour, tobacco or n egg, he or she would
immediately be arrested and beaten to death. The suspected ones were imprisoned
in the Gestapo basement in order to put them in front of a shooting squad later
on and kill them. Of course most of the suspected ones were Jews. They were not
even imprisoned in the basement, instead they were even cases where those
miserable were not even taken to a shooting squad, instead they were murdered
on the spot, by the train car. The community cart that carried the dead worked
around the clock and its itinerary was the train station cemetery. Many dead
bodies were overloaded on one cart. These were mostly Jews who were murdered
for trying to smuggle some bread for the children.

If a Jew was caught outside the ghetto he became a game for the murderers.
First, to entertain themselves, they would torture him and when he would lie
down unconscious they would finish him off by smashing his skull. In Demblin
there were three executioners who were cruel beyond any human imagination.
These were the Gendarmes, S. S. Johann Peterson, gendarme of the
Volksdeutscher, Edek Edward Brokof and the policeman, Garbartzek from the
criminal police. Peterson was an executioner and his height reached to two
meters (about seven feet). He was always accompanied by a special dog trained
to attack human beings.

Upon Peterson's order this dog would attack a human being at his neck and bite
it to death. Peterson in the street meant death. And every day before he sat
down to eat his breakfast, somebody innocent was murdered. Most of his
casualties were Jews but if a Pole was encountered the result would be the
same. When Peterson entered the community there were immediately a series of
messages about the danger that was approaching. If there was nobody around as a
result of the warning, the murdered would ambush his sacrifices behind a wall
or sit by a window at the café "Nur Pir Deutsche" an wait for
his sacrifice. If he saw a Jew in the distance, he would start shooting at him
and if he missed he sent his dog to attack and bite him. He would then approach
the Jew and shoot him behind on the back of his skull or leave the dog to tear
him apart and kill him.

The others followed him. Although they did not shoot as much, they were still
very dangerous and killed many. Edek and Garbartzek competed among themselves
who would kill the most and the underground declared death on those. Although
ambushed, these murderers were never killed and instead they were even more
vicious in their treatment and the cruelty and they continued to kill more and
more people.

- 7 -

In the second half of March 1942, the Germans brought Jews who were evicted
from Czechia. Most of them were part of the intelligentsia, doctors, lawyers,
architects, engineers, etc. In Czechia they were told there was a lack of
intelligent manpower in the occupied area, and as a result, they were needed.
They were allowed to take their clothing, bedding and other items. They were
told to put their items and luggage in packages at the freight cars of the
train and they were left out only with certificates and receipts that
identified their packages. They arrived in Demblin in passenger train cars were
heavily guarded.

Upon arriving at the Demblin train station they were informed that was the end
of the trip. When they approached the guard to claim their luggage and
packages, they were told that the freight train car disconnected by mistake
from the train and upon request each one of them would be able to get his
packages and that at the moment they all were to stay in special dormitories
that were prepared for them with what belongings they had with them. They were
handled by the Judenrat and all that they had left in their hands was a piece
of paper documenting their last piece of property which they never saw again.
They were placed in an already crowded ghetto that had to absorb hundreds of
additional people without clothing and bedding. The Judenrat had a very heavy
load, taking care of hundreds of additional victims.

A bunch of doctors got together and created a medical group in one of the
abandoned apartments in order to raise money for their food. But who could
really heal in those days and with what. Of course there were doctors, but
medication was lacking. The doctors didn't have enough medication to deal with
the epidemic that inflicted the Jewish population under the Nazi occupation.

The Czech Jews took off their expensive clothing and purchased for their value
food. Now they looked like the rest of their own kind, the inhabitants of
Demblin, and like them they were hungry for food like the fate of the rest of
the Demblin population. The Jews from Czechia were not as stoic as their
brothers from Poland. They could not withstand the minimal and bad living
conditions that waited for them. Soon diseases spread among them and the poor
hospital at Pshachodneyah Street was full of Jews from Czechia. They were
sleeping two in a bed and still the hospital could not absorb all those in
need. The death rate among the newcomers was disproportional compared to the
death rate of the senior ghetto inhabitants. When a Jew from Czechia became
sick he never came out of his bed, and he died. Although the sanitary workers
and doctors were dedicated and worked hard, they could not save many of the
lives. Their hard work and dedication was not enough to save people from death.
They had a belief that the nightmare would not last for long, a miracle would
come and the people would be set free again. This belief helped them carry the
horrible days in a more positive way and hope for life, but the days became
darker and darker.

Spring came, the sun shown happily but the misery was intensified. On April 19,
1943 the rumor spread from person to person that the Warsaw ghetto started an
armed uprising against their occupiers. The resistors claimed that if they were
going to die, they might as well die as heroes, with honor. Everyday came the
news about the cruel treatment of the Germans, burning people alive in their
houses, destroying houses and their inhabitants. Nobody could escape from the
claws of the Nazi animal. The horrible news broke the spirit of even the most
courageous people. The Jews of Demblin knew by then that their fate would be
the same as the Warsaw Jews. Here in Demblin the situation wasn't so cruel yet
because there wasn't such a mass murderer. The Jews who had been oppressed by
the Nazis tried to save their soul and the little property that they still had.
But their main worries were about their children. "We may not stay alive,
but our children must survive", the Jewish fathers and mothers used to
say. They started to give their children and property away to the Polish
neighbors. At the time the Germans started to expel many Poles to work in
Germany. While the Poles were not enthusiastic about this move, for the Jews
that work in Germany was a chance to survive. As a result the Jews put a lot of
effort to be included in the list of workers to be transported.

The main job of sending people to work in Germany was done by the Arbeitsamt
that was headed by the German Kovalsky. Kovalsky knew Polish very well although
he never admitted it. The rumors were that Kovalsky was an officer in the
Polish army from the battalions at Pozan county. Kovalsky turned out to be a
person that still kept his human image and treated the workers humanely. It is
difficult today to state if he ignored many of the young Jewish working
candidates who applied for jobs.

The clerks of the Arbeitsamt, who were previously army officers, cooperated now
with the underground. As a result the public knew what was happening and people
were hiding before the big arrest took place. These underground members got
instructions to send as many Jewish youths as possible to Germany in order to
save them from extinction. Similarly they did the same by sending the local
Jews to a variety of jobs in the immediate vicinity of Demblin such as the
airport and or other institutions in the city. However, sooner or later, the
activities of the clerks of the Arbeitsamt was discovered and they were forced
to run away to the forest and join the partisans. They were all caught by the
Nazis and killed except one who survived the occupation.

- 8 -

June 7 was the first day of the expulsion of Jews from Deblin, Ryki and
Bobrownik. During the morning hours, all the Jewish inhabitants were gathered
from the houses into the central market plaza. They were not allowed to take
anything except for a little package in their hands. The expelled were
organized in two groups. The young and healthy in one, and the old and children
in another. People were organized in lines. Behind them moved farmers' carts
that carried the old, the children and additional carts that carried the bodies
of dead people. The treatment of the Bobrownik Jews was relatively more humane
because they were guarded by the soldiers of the Wehrmacht. Not so were the
conditions of the Jews from Ryki. Those that were expelled were treated by the
"Blacks". Many were murdered while on the road and everything that
happened afterwards cannot be described by a sane human being. The old and the
children who were not able to catch up with the march were killed on the spot,
and those who were still dying were piled up on the farmers' carts with the
rest of the dead bodies. Not all died instantly. They were lying under the dead
bodies and died slowly, slowly, with agony. This is the testimony of one of the
local eyewitnesses, who watched the expulsion of the Jews from Ryki. "The
most horrible was to see the Jews of Ryki at the time of their expulsion.
Surrounded by Blacks and Ukrainians they moved under the burning sun, sweating
and with open mouths, hardly breathing. They were repeatedly whipped and beaten
by rifle butts of the murderers and those who could not catch up were shot on
the spot without hesitation. At that point three farmers immediately collected
the dead into their carts."

There were more than 10 carts and they piled up very quickly with old people,
children and women. This was a horrible experience that until today, after so
man years, when I remember it in front of my eyes, a cold chill passes through
my entire body.

At 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon the Germans conducted selections among the Jews
of Demblin. Those that were going to be expelled were surrounded by Blacks and
Ukranian soldiers that made them run through Warshavsky Street towards the
train station. But lets go back to the beginning of the expulsion of our city's
Jews. In the morning, as was the daily routine, the healthy Jews showed up for
work at the German companies and other jobs that they had. However, by 10:00
a.m. in the morning the entire ghetto was surrounded from all over so that
nobody could escape. Other units penetrated the ghetto and started to expel or
to concentrate the inhabitants to the central market plaza. At the plaza, the
manager of the "Arbaytz", members of German companies and Gendarmes
were present. The expulsion of the ghetto was done by Blacks and Ukrainians. On
the other side of the market plaza stood a Gestapo officer and the Commissar
Laanek. A German officer reported to them that the Jews of Demblin had been all
concentrated in the central market plaza except the sick ones who were still in
their beds in the hospital. When he heard this report, the officer started to
walk to the hospital at Pshachodneyah street accompanied with one of the
Blacks. He got into the hospital and on the spot killed seven sick patients in
their beds. After this murderous action he returned to the market plaza, called
the members of the Judenrat, started to send the Jews who were able to work,
along Okulna Street. The rest, about 2,000 people, joined the Jews who were
brought from Ryki and Bobrownik to concentrate there. They were marched towards
Warshavsky Street. The local farmers gathered the dead bodies of the Jews from
Ryki by the fire station and while crossing themselves escaped from the place
fearing the Satan of the 20
th
century dressed in shiny meticulous uniform and on the buckle was written
"Got Mit Ountz". What an insult! The name of God written on their
buckles, and in their bodies is the blood thirsty Satan.

After the expelled people left the place, the rest of the Jews were allowed to
return to their houses. The healthy Jews from Ryki and Bobrownik were also
housed in the shacks at the field and were surrounded by barbed wire. The young
women from Bobrownik and Ryki were housed in a camp by the road to the airport
in order to work there.

In the late evening hours, the Jews returned from their work. They knew about
the expulsion that took place while they were away from home. In their hearts
snuck in the hope and illusion that the expulsions skipped their own family
members. However, when they entered their houses they saw them empty and messy.
Then they immediately understood that he murderers got them all. They all
immediately burst into crying, and yelled from their hearts like tortured
people. The cry sounded from many Jewish houses and the entire ghetto was in
mourning.

The expelled were crammed by the Germans into freight train cars until they
could not move any parts of the body anymore. The children were thrown on top
of the adults that were standing in the car. Prior to loading, the train cars
were spread with lye powder. The lye powder stuck to the hot and sweaty bodies
of the miserable, burned their skin and eyes and inflicted pain on them. The
heat from the many bodies cramped into the car was unbearable, the car was
almost hermetically closed and there was not enough air to breath. The
miserable fainted and died while standing and nobody could get close to them
and help them. There was not one hand to approach them to help them with mercy
by giving them a drop of water. All the cars were closed and sealed with a
lock. And all around stood the German animals that guarded them from all
around. Anyone who tried to get close to the cars was shot to death on the spot.

Whoever stood there and saw these horrific scenes will never in the world be
able to understand this terrifying tragedy that took place during that day. Not
even an imaginative person will be able to write to report the scene of the
stretched hand, the quest and prayer for mercy and the eyes that were poking
from their holes from horror and fear and the desperate cries of those who
realized that they were on the way to their last hours. The Polish population
was forbidden to hang around and witness the scene, however, they were
passively witnessing the scene by looking through the windows, seeing their
neighbors marching to their death. They could only feel sorry for those who
were going to their death but not really help them. Every little expression of
help could end up in immediate death. Many people were very fearful and did not
trust each other. You didn't know who was your friend and who was your enemy
who would tell on you. Those who were weak and had no personality followed
their instinct of self defense and participated with the Nazis. Although there
were not many who participated with the Nazis in Demblin, there were
participators. Because of those traitors, many from the Polish people were
encamped in prisons and found their deaths. In spite of everything and in spite
of the traitors, many did not give up, there were still human hearts who were
helping the desperate. During the first expulsion, the worker Yoskay was locked
in the storage house and his friend did not let him get out, in spite of his
request to go to the central market plaza. His wife and daughter were taken by
the murderers and he remained with his agony and sorrow. Every day when he
appeared at work, he would cry about his wife and daughter. If he only
mentioned his wife and daughter's name, he could not speak anymore. Although he
was not weak, one night he broke down. He did not talk anymore and he did not
touch anything around him. He was not afraid of dearth anymore. On the
contrary, for people in his condition death was salvation from sorrow and
desperation. The sorrow and agony was common to all the people of Israel. Most
likely in that day, every Jewish house lost at least one of its loved ones. But
it was not the time to cry and mourn for loved ones. It was the hour to
struggle against the Nazi animal and wear off the German hell. Those who
survived the expulsion were determined to struggle and save many others from a
similar fate. They started by hiding and smuggling children into the adjacent
villages where many found a shelter among the partisans in the forest.

- 9 -

Two days after the deportation I met with Pinchas Schteinbuch who told me that
one of the Jewish elders wanted to meet me. Schteinbuch gave me the address of
the man who was living at the corner of Okulna Street and Warshavsky street.
When I entered the house I saw the man standing and praying, covered with
tallit and tfillin. He pointed out for me to sit on a chair and continued his
praying. When he finished his praying, a deep sigh burst from his chest. He
then kissed the siddur, untied the tfillin band from his arm, took off the
headpiece of the tfillin and mumbled the prayers of "el male rachmim"
[God full of mercy]. Then he reached out his hand to bless me, sat down at he
table by me and his deep and wise eyes looked at me for awhile, then he
addressed me and said, "Sir, I have recommendations about you, therefore
I'll talk to you shortly and to the point. As you know, Sir, our family members
were deported a few days ago to an unknown destination. Would you, Sir, agree
to travel and follow them and find out where they have been transported. Of
course we will cover the entire travel cost. Sir, please think about this offer
for two days, and then give me your answer. And if you agree, we will provide
you with the funds and the blessing of our God will accompany you". As we
continued to talk for a little while, I felt as if any additional words
increased his agony and soon after I departed and left.

Two days later I returned to the Jew that was the assistant Rabbi and I
informed him that I accepted the offer to travel and to find out the
destination of the Demblin Jews' deportation. He then thanked me on my good
will and then added, that the travel was unnecessary because a few of the train
station workers informed him that the destination was the Sobibor camp and he
added that if he needed my services again he would certainly remember my
willingness to help and would contact me again.

For the average man who didn't have any information about the tragedy and the
horror that took place in the ghetto, it looked as though life went on as
usual. Day by day people showed up at the concentration point, Germans came and
selected among them the workers that they desired and the rest went back to
their houses. There wasn't really life in the ghetto anymore, only the struggle
to survive.

In one of the summer days of July, the German commissar, who seemed to be in a
bad mood, called the entire Judenrat to show up in front of him.

Everybody showed up at once and lined up in one line, standing in the sun,
facing the building wall. They stood bareheaded, the sun hitting their head and
sweat rolling down on their foreheads. No one even dared try hiding against the
blazing sun. Everyone was shivering with fear and on his lips hung the
question, "Why did this happen to us?" Rosenberg noticed that the
clerk, Yakovshek was sitting at the community room. He thought about asking him
why were they standing like this in the sun and if it would be possible to
stand away from the blazing sun. He then got out of the line and went into the
office. As Rosenberg entered the building, Laanek the commissar burst out
accompanied by several Blacks and Blacks to conduct "physical
exercise" on his victims. Those hoodlums and murderers immediately
understood Laanek's idea and with a wild desire started to torture their
victims. They yelled and screamed their orders non-stop "Get up, fall
down, jump, lie down", and so they did for one long hour. The miserable
were rolling in the dust oozing sweat from all over their bodies, their breath
short, their feet trembled and many collapsed to the ground. Then finally it
seemed that the torturers got tired of torturing their victims and ordered the
miserable to return to their houses. They didn't wait even a second and
catching their last breath they started to run away from those Satan murderers,
who shot after them in order to scare them away. With fear and anxiety the Jews
arrived at the ghetto and disappeared into their houses. However, Rosenberg
couldn't get out of the building because he was hiding behind the closet with
the clerk Yakovshak and they both feared for their lives if they were
discovered in the building because Jews were not allowed to be in it.

The principle laborer at the airport was the Austrian engineer, Schneider. The
Judenrat people asked him to be included in his labor force and as a reward
they gave him gold and jewelry. That engineer was decent. He accepted them into
his labor force and as an exchange for the gold and jewelry he received he
protected them by informing his supervisors that these Jews were necessary for
the work at the airport and that many among them were professionals. His
supervisor approved it because the work was very necessary and the War was
still continuing.

Many looked for ways to save themselves. There were many who directly asked the
Germans to protect them for gold and jewelry. Many others found other ways
cheaper and safer. There were a few that asked Prantzeshak Yandzjevsky to help
them by sending them to Germany through the "Arbauystanst". And
indeed, thanks to the effort of Yandzjevsky the "Arbeitsamt" sent
Arye Schteibach, Shlomo Stern, Sviegenberg's daughter, to Germany. However
those did not travel as Jews, they traveled as Poles. As a result they were
provided with documents that testified to their Polish origin and their roman
catholic religion. Those documents were also provided by Yandzjevsky.

After the deportation there were many orphaned left to hang around without a
house, father or mother. A few had been helped, but the majority could not find
any shelter and continued to hang around from place to place, hungry and beaten
like an oppressed animal and they were captured by the Gestapo.

Upon being captured, the Gestapo interrogated them as to who hid them, who
provided them with food, and so on. After the interrogation, if they did not
reveal anything, they were shot immediately.

In July 1942 there emerged from the police station, two young children,
handcuffed, and behind them was Peterson accompanied with his dog. The boy was
about 12 years old and the girl was about 9 years old. As they were marching,
his dog attacked them. And when they arrived at the central market plaza,
Peterson shot them to death at the back of their head.

When the Germans started to lose the battle at Stalingrad and the east front in
Africa and when the war with the partisans started to spread and increase in
the occupied territory, the Germans increased their terror action against the
population in their occupied area. At that time, the murdered never made it to
the cemetery. Instead, they were buried at the outskirts of the city in any
available space, without any demarcation indicating their region or identity of
the murdered.

Among the Jews from Czechia who arrived in Demblin, there were two beautiful
women, the older one said she was the mother of the younger one. They were both
very attractive and elegant looking. The rumor was that they might be from
Yugoslavia. They walked freely in the streets and did not live in the ghetto.
They used to be permanent visitors of the Gestapo officer that used to live at
the house of Dr. Kodriatzev on Warshavsky street. The visits seemed to be for
matters of different errands and also maybe for the purposes of sex, between
the Gestapo officer and the younger one. But on one of the days in September,
1942, they all found themselves at the gendarme station together with Paula
Kaminsky, two other unidentified women, and six Jewish men. All the 11 people
in the group were loaded onto a truck and were led accompanied by the gendarme
Edward Brokof Kirsch and another one, to the cemetery. At the cemetery they got
off the truck and were led along the left side of the road where they were all
shot and buried.

- 10 -

On October 15, 1942, the Germans started to dismantle the ghetto. From the very
early hours of the morning, the ghetto was surrounded by units of Ukrainian
"Death Skulls" and S. S. soldiers. The ghetto turned to hell.
People went out of their minds while the Nazi murderers started to burst into
their houses and with kicks and curses they expelled the Jews. The sick ones
were killed immediately on the spot. The Jews who realized that the angel of
death had come to take them away, started to hide. Many went crazy and ran away
directly into the street where they found their immediate death. Those that did
not hurry up to fulfill their orders, children, old and women, were shot on the
spot. The rest showed up at the central market plaza. Upon watching these
scenarios, many from the Polish population stated to cry and many of the
religious among them crossed themselves and prayed to God for many of the
murderers to be buried alive. At the same time, by the community building at
the market plaza, one of the black Satans stood up peacefully with no
expression on his murderous face, he did not even blink while looking at the
horrible murderers that he caused.

Okulna Street, Sanatorska and the market plaza were full of the dead bodies of
innocent victims. This was the end of the Jewish community of Demblin.

Upon concentration all the city Jews in one place, their classification
started. Women were torn away from their husbands, children from their mothers
and with beatings and screams they were sorted out into groups. At the side
stood the laborer merchants expecting to get the slaves for no exchange. Those
were the lucky ones that went out to work at the airport, the labor camp or the
train station with a small package in their hands. They were not allowed to
take the time to separate from their family members. The rest were marched
along in long lines, with beatings and whipping through Warshavsky street.
Cries, screaming and sighs of sorrow were carried among the marchers to their
deaths and a prayer was echoed in the air, "May the God of Israel protect
his people on its way to slaughter". However, the prayers did not
penetrate the copper sky. God gave free hand to Satan to finish up his selected
people, the people of Israel. People that in a little while would become dust
were marching slowly, slowly toward their last destination. Their watery eyes
looked at the houses' windows as if asking for help. But nobody was standing at
the windows, nobody could save the miserable, nobody could bare their quest for
mercy. The Polish population was also under terror. They were terrified by the
screaming and the shooting that accompanied the Demblin Jews in exiting their
city where their fathers had lived. The slow ones were shot on the spot. By the
river, an old Jewish Czech and his daughter who was holding his hand were far
behind the column, therefore one of the Blacks shot him. As he fell on the
pavement, his daughter grabbed the rifle from the murderer and screamed,
assaulting the murderer of her father. But suddenly she stopped, realizing what
she was about to do, but at the same time another murderer aimed his rifle at
her head and shot her to death.

For many years, the Demblin population could not forget the horrible and the
terrifying scenes still visible to many until these days. The second
deportation dismantled the ghetto entirely. That was the end of the last of the
Demblin Jews.

The Germans imprisoned the Jews in three camps, at the airport, by the
agricultural school that was located on the road between the airport and the
fortress and the third was the cargo camp. The rest, about 15,000 people, were
sent by the Nazis to Maidanek death camp to the gas chambers. The treatment
during this expulsion was far more cruel than the previous one.

After the expulsion, the Nazis ordered the Judenrat to collect all the dead
bodies by the synagogue. The next day the farmers came with their carts and
collected the dead bodies and buried them at the Bobrownik cemetery. The
murdered bodies were loaded on the carts by the Judenrat people and the Jewish
police that were left in the ghetto to clean up the dead bodies that the Nazis
left after them.

They were also present during the mass burial. I was there also, on behalf of
the underground movement in order to see what the Germans did to the Jews. In
order to avoid the Germans' suspicion I requested from Hancharski to provide me
with documents that my presence at the cemetery was needed for supervising a
proper burial to avoid diseases. And indeed I got such a document and
throughout the entire burial wrote down whatever I saw. The Bobrownik farmers
dug a large mass burial deep enough where all the dead were buried. The farmers
were helped by four policemen, and the Germans from the "Death
Skulls" and the Banshutze supervised the entire project. The Germans
ordered the dead bodies to be stripped of their clothing, but after the farmers
requested not to do so, the Germans allowed them. And so, the murdered were
buried with their clothing at the moment of their death. Not all were buried on
the same day, since the night came down. The Jews, the farmers and I, stayed to
sleep that night at Bobrownik in order to finish the job the next day. During
the burial, one of the Jews asked me to get a special permit from the murderers
to allow him to bury his little son that he found among the dead ones, in a
separate grave. The Germans accepted his request and the little boy was buried
separately.

The Germans murdered 215 people in that deportation that was the dismantling of
the ghetto. However, today I cannot exactly verify the number of the women and
the men, because the list that I put together during the burial was all lost
with other documents of the Krayova army. Two children, Izio and Ida Rozenman,
managed to escape from the deportation. Yan Taryee, a fireman, found them and
hid them at his house. Later he created contact with their parents who were
imprisoned at the camp by the airport, and brought them back to their parents
with the help of the Volksdeutscher and Yandzjevsky.

- 11 -

After the deportation the Germans started to loot the houses of the Jews that
were murdered. They passed from house to house and looted every valuable item.
To witness this action they brought Peter Pinka, Chaslav Stefanski, the
community treasurer and me from the health department. We were all supervised
by Gendarmes and the Black Rubientnik and Steinbuch from the Judenrat. One
group put seals on the closed houses at Starovka street. We put seals on the
sealed houses along Bankova street. And another group at the sealed houses on
Okulna Street. At the first house on Bankova Street at the side of Warshavsky,
an older couple sat at a table and prayed. When the Black saw them he was
furious. He yelled and screamed at them, beat them with his rifle butt and
immediately kicked first the old woman away from the house and about 20 meters
away he killed her on the spot. Then he murdered her husband who collapsed
beside her. We could not witness the murder of innocent and defenseless elderly
and we were hiding at the adjacent house. We passed around other houses, they
were all empty, but in one of the basements at Okulna Street the Gendarmes
suddenly heard something.

The gendarme ordered me to walk towards the direction of the sound and see what
was the source. When I looked into the basement I saw a Jew hiding behind the
house. The Jew saw me as well. I hinted to him not to be afraid and I pretended
as if I was scaring away a stray cat and I returned to the gendarme. I told him
the cat was the source of the noise. I talked loudly so that the hiding Jew
would hear me and see that indeed I didn't reveal his hiding. Later, on the way
back, I told Schteinbuch about the Jew I discovered, in order to find a way of
helping him to arrive at the camp at the airport. And indeed, the next time I
met Schteinbuch I discovered that that Jew managed to arrive at the camp.

After November 1, 1942, the Germans emptied all the Jewish houses. They took
apart the Jewish houses that were made out of wood and used the material for
heating during the cold winter days. The rest of the houses that remained in
good shape were confiscated for their living spaces and the rest they gave free
for the Poles to live in.

As mentioned before, the Germans established four labor camps in Demblin. Two
were situated by the airport, another one by the town and Mozovietchka and the
fourth one by the cargo station. The Jews who were imprisoned in the camps by
the airport worked under the supervision of the German engineer Schneider in
the maintenance of the airport and its shops. The prisoners of the camp that
was situated by the city and the other camp by the station were working in the
loading and unloading of the train and the cargo cars. The camps were fenced
with barbed wire and were guarded by Ukrainians. The camp by the cargo station
was not isolated but it was also guarded by Ukrainians. In that camp, my good
friends, Dr. Kava and his wife and also Yitzhak Goldberg and his wife, were
imprisoned. This camp housed about 120 people and the other camp by the city
was bigger and housed about 200 people. I entered and visited the camp by the
train quite often and the camp by the city only one time because I did not have
any friends and there was no reason for my visit. Even though I would tell the
entire truth, nobody would believe me simply because it was forbidden for Poles
to be in the camp area. The wooden living quarters in the camps had beds made
out of wood and a little bit of straw was spread that seemed more like garbage.
Only Dr. Kava had special conditions. He lived in separate quarters. At the
camp by the train station, the Jews had a kitchen for themselves where they
prepared "coffee" and "soup" and since this camp was not
fenced the prisoners could easily provide themselves with some food products
although at very high prices. Not so was the condition at the camp behind the
city where Jews from Ryki and Bobrownik and other places were imprisoned. The
local Polish population did not recognize them and they did not recognize the
local inhabitants. They quickly exhausted the little savings they had with them
and soon started to starve to death. When I visited the camp in the summer of
1943 many of them were already dying and not capable of working anymore. At the
beginning of July 1943 the Germans dismantled the camp by Irena.

The camp by the station continued to operate, but inhabitants knew very well
that the Germans would not let them survive the camp. They were aware of the
existence of the death camps, Maidanek, Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz. They
believed that only a miracle could save them. I repeatedly tried to persuade
Dr. Kava and Goldberg to run away to the forest and join the partisans, but
they did not want to leave their wives who always tried to stay away from the
forest because it was unknown.

In March 1943, Goldberg informed me that Dr. Kava and his wife got typhus and
died. Their very poor health condition did not allow them to recover from the
disease.

In the autumn of 1943, the Germans dismantled the camp by the train station. I
could not find out the destination of the deportation because at that time the
Nazis dismantled the small camps as well, such as Pulawy, Konskavola ands
Poniatov.

I could not penetrate the camp by the airport because the Germans never granted
me a special entry permit and claimed the camp was isolated and had its own
sanitary system. Therefore I don't know how many and who were the people
imprisoned in it. According to an unreliable estimation I would say that camp
had about 500 people, but in order to verify the number only the people who
managed to survive from this camp could testify.

Several weeks later Jews started to emerge from their hiding places, hungry,
sick and thin like skeletons that were hardly recognizable as human creatures.
With the help of a few Poles, the Nazis captured them very easily. The captured
were immediately imprisoned and after interrogation they were shot to death at
the community yard or at an abandoned house at Sanatorska street. Edek took on
the interrogation and the murder himself since he was in the folksdeuthcher and
knew Polish very well. That murderer killed with his own hands about 300 Jews
and about 50 Poles. Micheslav Sabrin killed many Jews and Poles. The Polish
underground declared the death sentence on him. By the final decision of
Krayova army, Sabrin was executed in March 1944. Tadeush Tarchinsky was
executed by the decision of the Krayova army in March 1942 because throughout
many years he worked with Schteinbuch and gave the Germans many names of rich
Jews to be executed. In 1943, just this was done to the head of the police,
Garbartznek. Death found him at his lover's apartment at Staromieska Street.
The hand of vengeance finally captured the master killer Peterson. The Polish
underground ambushed him at the village, Krasnoglina, when he returned from
Mozchianki. However, the murderers Zedward Brokof, Edek and Kirsch stayed alive
and well in the land of Poland.

The camp at the airport existed until the beginning of 1944. As the Red Army
approached, the Germans transferred the Jews to the Czenstechov region where
the Russian winter offensive brought out their final freedom and liberation.

Epilogue

The description of the life of the Jews before the First World War, I based on
sources from Mobion and Viki and also testimonies of the headmaster
from the previous school No. 2, Kosik, and n stories from the elderlies of the
city.

The sources for the descriptions of the life of the Jews between the two World
Wars I drew from testimonies of many people, especially from testimonies of
Blaziechic, the previous community leader (secretary); also testimonies of
Vidala, a clerk in the community in Demblin; on the writing and lists of Mr.
Yandzjevsky, and also on my personal observations.

My descriptions of the period of German occupation were based on the
testimonies of Yandzjevsky, Kosik, Blazjesky, Vidala and Viakovshek and also on
my personal memoirs.

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